Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip, has issued a formal complaint over the
apparent leaking of the police report into the “plebgate” row which forced
him to resign from the government.

In a letter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) an angry Mr Mitchell claimed the partial leaking of information had been “spun” to the advantage of officers involved in the case.

“This was an enquiry into a dishonest and illicit attempt to blacken my name and destroy my career,” he wrote. “It would appear that the police enquiry continues precisely that process.”

The letter, to Deborah Glass, the IPCC’s deputy chair, follows newspaper reports last week that the Metropolitan Police file passed to the Crown Prosecution Service contained no evidence that officers in Downing Street lied about an altercation with the former chief whip.

The CPS has yet to decide whether any officers should be charged. However, it has indicated it was unhappy with file it had received from the police and was awaiting more evidence.

Mr Mitchell is suing The Sun over its original report of the incident in which the newspaper claimed he had called officers “plebs” in a row over whether he could ride his bicycle through Downing Street’s security gates.

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The former chief whip, who strongly denies using the word but who admits swearing during the altercation, wrote to the IPCC: “We are deeply dismayed that the Metropolitan Police appear to have leaked part of the report prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service to certain members of the press and spun it to the advantage of the police officers concerned.”

The MP has claimed officers were involved in a conspiracy to frame him.

Last night David Davis, the former shadow home secretary and an ally of Mr Mitchell, accused the police of acting in the same high-handed manner as when they arrested Damian Green, the Home Office minister, in his Commons office in 2008 over government leaks when he was a shadow immigration spokesman.

Mr Davis said the Mitchell case had “started with the briefing to the press of half truths and partial intelligence” and added: “That is exactly what has been happening again during the inquiry.”

Mr Davis said there was a “lie at the centre” of the allegations about Mr Mitchell. The official police log of the incident in September indicated that “several members of the public” had witnessed the altercation last September but a Channel 4 report into the incident including CCTV footage, had proved this to be false,. Mr Davis added.

Michael Howard, the former Conservative leader, said: “Police reports to the CPS should not be in the public domain. If this report was leaked by the policed, I think it is deplorable.”

Mr Howard said that there was a likelihood “on the face of it” that police had leaked parts of the report. “I have known Andrew a very long time. I cannot believe he would have used the words in dispute,” the former Tory leader added.

At least 10 police officers from four different forces are now understood to be under investigation over the incident.

The IPCC is overseeing two separate inquiries, one into an alleged plot by Scotland Yard officers to discredit Mr Mitchell, the other into the conduct of Midlands Police Federation representatives who met the former minister after the story broke.